Such chassis parts are generally known and can be used as a connection between the chassis and the wheel carrier or as an axle strut or chassis control arm. Reference is made as an example to the documents DE 41 20 772 C2, DE 33 32 771 C2 and DE 199 31 079 A1.
The above-mentioned documents pertain to force-transmitting chassis parts, which comprise essentially an elongated basic body and end-side mount supports with mounts. Even though the mount supports and mounts are made in these cases of composite materials, i.e., a combination of metals and plastic portions, the elongated basic body nevertheless always consists of metal.
It was found in the course of the development that the chassis parts, whose basic body is made mostly of forged steel or gray cast iron, do not sufficiently meet the increased requirements any longer in terms of their material properties, and the possibilities in terms of reducing the weight are also fully exhausted in the case of all-metal basic bodies.
An all-plastic basic body is sometimes also used instead of an all-metal basic body for weight optimization, but such chassis parts entail the problem that the plastics used usually tend to undergo brittle fracture. This means that the function of these chassis parts is lost 100% after damage to such a chassis part, whereas complete loss of function does not occur, e.g., in chassis parts made exclusively of metal, even though bending and deformation has occurred.
Even though composite materials based on sheet metal-plastic combinations have been known in the manufacture of automobiles from, e.g., the German unexamined patent application DE 38 39 855 A1, the applications proposed there are structural parts for motor vehicle doors, shock absorbers, structural beams, front and rear shells or door sills, in which the sheet metal parts defining the outer shape shall have increased strength or rigidity due to plastic ribbing. None of these lightweight components proposed is, however, suitable for absorbing massive compressive and tensile forces as they occur in chassis parts.